


Downplayed

by ShrapnelChan



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Allergies, Fluff, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Kibana | Raihan, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:36:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28920690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShrapnelChan/pseuds/ShrapnelChan
Summary: And then Opal’s Alcremie decides she can't sleep anywhere except Leon’s arms, and it becomes a major issue..Or, Leon plays down his own health, but Raihan and Opal are there to remind him to take care of himself.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 14
Kudos: 74





	Downplayed

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this bc I set off my own strawberry allergies at work (I was fine lol) and promptly decided "huh, guess Leon has that same allergy now. Good thing he doesn't have an Alcremie."

Here's a little known fact about Leon: he’s allergic to strawberries.

He wouldn't call it a severe allergy. They make his throat dry, and if he eats or smells enough of them, it gets difficult for him to breathe. He doesn't break into hives, he can pick them up with no ill effects. He just can't eat them. 

So usually he's fine. Raihan sometimes forgets and eats strawberries then tries to kiss him, but a gentle reminder sends Raihan off to brush their teeth and he’s fine. He once smelled a fruity strawberry drink that Sonia offered him a sip of and felt the first small scratches of a reaction in his throat, and was fine after leaning away from the scent. Allergies aren’t that uncommon, and it’s not like strawberries are in every popular Galarian dish.

And then Opal’s Alcremie decides she can't sleep anywhere except Leon’s arms, and it becomes a major issue.

It starts off innocently enough. Leon and Opal sit beside each other in the stands of the Galarian Star Tournament’s latest run. Opal leans forward on her umbrella, carefully regarding her pupil as he faces off against Hop and Gloria. Leon sits with his arms folded over his chest, still smarting from his and Raihan’s swift loss in the first round. Raihan has gone to get snacks, commenting that with Gloria on the field the lines should be near-nonexistent.

Leon watches Gloria’s eyes gleam with excitement in the heat of battle and the knowing looks she exchanges with Hop, and he leans back in his seat and smiles. Their faces are amplified on the jumbotron, and the crowd cheers at Gloria’s confident grin. 

Opal peers at him out of the corner of her eye and grins. “Still can’t defeat our newest Champion?”

Leon laughs, his brows scrunching together as he grins. “Not a whit, I’m afraid! Though, we’re fairly evenly matched in the Battle Tower. I should probably set aside some more time for strength training.”

Opal laughs along with Leon. Bede’s Mawile lands a critical hit on Hop’s Dubwool, and her eyes flash with pride. 

A soft cooing is accompanied by a cool touch to Leon’s foot, seeping through his shoe and straight down to his toes. He looks down and Opal’s Alcremie blinks up at him, holding tight to his shin and smiling as she trills out a greeting.

“Hullo there,” Leon says, and he scoops up the tiny ball of cream.

“She can return to her ball if she needs to.” Opal turns to peer at the tiny fairy. “She’s simply tired. She had a long training session with Bede yesterday, and it wound her up. She didn’t sleep all night.”

Leon smiles as he tucks the now-giggling cream into his arms like a small child. “It’s no trouble! My own team usually sleeps better when they’re out of their Pokéballs, I don’t mind.”

He later realizes that he’d never considered the strawberries adorning Alcremie’s head as anything other than decoration. They are, in fact, quite similar to real strawberries, with the same genetic breakdown and the same scent and taste. The aroma comes off of the Ruby Swirl Alcremie in waves, and soon enough Leon can feel the dry itch starting in the back of his throat.

A well-timed Double-Edge takes out Bede’s Mawile, and Leon smiles proudly at his brother’s team. Hop and Gloria exchange a quick fist-bump as Bede sends out his Rapidash, Gloria already calling out for Zacian to slam into Klara’s Scolipede with a swift Behemoth Blade. Bede scowls, and Klara is visibly fuming as she swaps out for her Slowbro and activates her Dynamax Band.

Opal shifts in her seat, then stands, carefully balancing on her umbrella. She turns to him, looking concerned. “I’ve a feeling I’ll be needed to help Bede calm down. Would you mind watching her for me?” She smiles down at the snoring Alcremie. “I don’t want to wake her.”

“Of course!” Leon swallows, and winces at the dry feeling in his mouth. Opal shuffles away, and Leon watches her go. He swallows again and the dry feeling intensifies.

A flurry of movement to his left grabs his attention as Raihan sinks down into their chair with a sigh, hands empty of food or drink. They stretch out their legs and lay one long arm around the back of Leon’s chair. Leon instinctively leans into the warmth.

“Lines for snacks were way too long, not sure why everyone’s out of their seat mid-match,” Raihan complains. Leon laughs at the Dragon Tamer’s hypocrisy but chokes on an ill-concealed cough. He clears his throat, and Raihan tilts his head and opens one eye at the sound. He perks up at the sight of the puddle of cream in Leon’s arms. “Oh? Who’s this?”

“She’s Opal’s,” Leon tries to say, but the dry scratch is spreading down his throat, and his voice is hoarse. He coughs, half-choking on the words, and Raihan looks at him with concern.

“Leon, what – ” Raihan looks down at the glossy strawberries nestled into Alcremie’s head and their eyes widen. “Leon! Strawberries! Your allergies!”

They carefully pluck Alcremie out of Leon’s arms and lean her away from Leon, and Leon sighs in relief. Just getting the scent of strawberries further away from him is helping. He clears his throat, and the roughness is already abiding.

“Thanks, Rai, I didn’t think Alcremie would set me off – ”

He’s cut off by a warbling cry as Alcremie wakes up and, finding herself now in Raihan’s arms, starts crying. Raihan turns to the tiny fairy type, bouncing her in their arms and shushing her. She leans away from them and stretches her tiny arms out to Leon.

“Opal said she hadn’t been sleeping,” Leon says, and he winces at how rough his voice still is.

Raihan hums. “Well, she’s gonna have to sleep somewhere that isn’t your arms, if she’s setting off – ” Alcremie’s cries get louder at Raihan’s words, and they cringe at the volume. People are starting to peer curiously at them, and Leon sighs.

“Opal went to talk to Bede, maybe we could go return her?”

“Good plan,” Raihan says.

* * *

For someone who takes as small of steps as Opal does, she seems to have gotten to the locker room extremely quickly. “Of course,” Raihan says, “of  _ course _ they were in the locker room across the damn stadium.”

Alcremie had refused to stop crying until Leon was holding her. “I’ll manage,” he’d told Raihan, “just lead on and get us there quickly.”

By the time they reach the locker room, Leon has tucked his face inside his tee-shirt and Alcremie tucked into the crook of one arm. He leans his face away from the Pokemon. It helps only a tiny bit – the scent of strawberries seems to be seeping into his clothing. He’s grateful that he keeps a change of clothes here at the stadium.

Raihan rests a broad hand on the small of his back as they guide him through the bustling stadium. They finally reach the locker room and Raihan nods at the staff members standing guard at the doors. They push open the door and gently guide Leon in.

“ – how is it still so easy for them!”

“They have the type advantage, child, there’s no getting around that,” Opal says. Bede is sitting on the bench, pink in the face from embarrassment and frustration. He’s scowling, and Opal’s words make him turn away from her.

Opal looks up at Leon and Raihan as they enter the locker room. Her eyes hone in on Alcremie (now giggling in Leon’s arms), and on Leon’s face barely visible behind his tee shirt. His eyes are watering, and he’s not sure if it’s from the scent of strawberries or from his own shallow breathing.

“Sometimes, if you can’t beat them,” Opal says to Bede, “you have to join them.”

Raihan lifts Alcremie out of Leon’s arms and Leon sighs in relief, tugging his shirt back down and sitting heavily down on one of the benches. Opal holds out her arms for the already-sniffling Alcremie and Raihan quickly passes the tiny fairy-type to her.

“Sorry, Miss Opal,” Leon says. He coughs, and she gives him a sharp look.

“Leon, if you were having a reaction, why didn't you just tell me?” She clicks her tongue. Raihan is already at the vending machine in the corner, feeding in coins and punching the button for the biggest bottle of water in the machine.

“You said she hadn’t slept,” he replies. He takes the bottle from Raihan with a grateful smile. He takes a long sip. “And you were needed here.”

“And I could have easily brought her with me, she can rest in her Pokéball,” Opal chides. She turns back to Bede. “As I said, child. Sometimes, you might be better off forming alliances with those you do not care for. But not,” and here she gives Leon a sharp look, “at the cost of your own health. Physical or mental.” She slides her sharp gaze back to Bede, and he sighs.

“I get it, I get it. Establish boundaries, but open my horizons. Make nice with Hop.” He scowls at his shoes for a moment, then looks back up at Raihan and Leon.

Raihan is rubbing slow circles into Leon’s back. “You doing better, babe?” Raihan’s voice is so soft, and Leon’s heart melts at the love in his tone and eyes. He nods.

“The water’s helping a lot,” he says. The roughness is leaving his voice, and he breathes in deep. The scent of strawberries makes him wrinkle his nose. “I’ve got a spare uniform ‘round here somewhere, I think in the side room there?” 

Raihan nods. “I gotchu, babe, just sit tight,” they say, and stand. They nod to Opal as they walk by her to the other room, the automatic door swinging shut with a soft  _ click _ .

Opal pats Bede on the shoulder and turns to leave. “I’ll let you have your privacy,” she says to Leon as she walks away. “I do hope you feel better. No more strawberries, boy, you hear?” She points a long, bony finger at Leon, and he smiles, nodding to her as she leaves. Alcremie squeaks out a farewell and waves at Leon as the heavy door closes behind them.

Bede is still staring at Leon, his head quirked to the side. Leon continues to sip at his water. His hand rests at the base of his throat, focusing on the feeling there and trying to gauge if he needs more water.

“You, uh. You alright there?” Leon’s eyes snap to Bede, who immediately looks away.

Leon smiles. “Yeah,” he says. His voice is starting to sound a bit smoother, good. “I’m allergic to strawberries, didn’t expect Alcremie to set it off though.”

Bede looks back at Leon with a wry smirk. “Yeah, I learned that the hard way, too. I’m allergic to dairy,” he adds at Leon’s raised eyebrow. “I thought it would be fine, but after two days of training a Milcery I could hardly breathe.”

“It’s rough, huh?” Leon smiles sympathetically. “Raihan forgets sometimes, and they’ll offer me strawberries. Sweet of them, but I rather like breathing.”

Bede winces and laughs. “So, not quite the mind-reading-partnership you two project on the pitch?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Leon leans forward, his forearms on his knees and his wrists crossed. “It takes a lot of work to get there, and we’ve got ten years of friendship to back up the double battles.”

“Found it!” The door to the side room swings open and Raihan is waving a clean uniform shirt in the air. “Give me the old one, I’ll find a bag or something to put it in.”

Leon accepts the clean shirt with a smile. Their fingers brush, and Raihan’s eyes crinkle as he smiles back at Leon.

“….Oh.” They turn towards Bede, who is looking from Leon to Raihan to their hands on the tee shirt with his eyes growing wider by the second. “You two are…”

“Together, yes,” Raihan says. They turn to Bede as Leon quickly lifts his strawberry-scented shirt over his head and tugs on the clean one with a sigh of relief. “About six months now.”

“We’re not public to the media with it yet, though,” Leon adds, tugging his hair out of the neck of the shirt. “So we’d appreciate it if you keep it on the down-low. We’d rather go public on our own terms.”

Bede nods. “Understandable.”

Raihan disappears to the side room once more in search of something to put Leon’s shirt in. Leon sips his water and watches as Bede drops his gaze down to his shoes. Bede scuffs the toe of one shoe against the other, his brow furrowing. He takes in a breath as though to speak, then stops, biting his lip. Leon waits patiently, letting the kid take his time.

“You said,” Bede starts, then he hesitates again. “When you announced the Star Tournament. You said to partner up with the strongest trainer you know. You chose Raihan.”

Leon nods. “I did.”

“But they’ve never beaten you. Gloria has.”

Leon smiles and crosses his arms over his chest. “That’s true,” he admits. “But I didn’t think that partnership would help either of us to grow, not at that point.”

Bede frowns and tilts his head. Leon shakes his head. “Well, at least not in that first run. Gloria and I are… almost too similar. Working with others who still give you a hard time in battle – that keeps you on your toes.”

The side room door opens, and Raihan ducks through the doorframe. They walk past Bede to Leon and rest a hand on Leon’s shoulder.

“You good, babe? Need any more water?” They’re already checking how full the water bottle is, and he softly brushes a lock of hair behind Leon’s ear.

Leon smiles. “I’m fine, Rai. We should go see how the matches are proceeding, though.”

Raihan nods and grips Leon’s hand to help pull him up from the bench. Leon looks back at Bede as they leave, and he stops short of the door. Raihan pauses, looking at Leon.

“If you ever want to be kept a bit more on your toes,” Leon says, looking Bede directly in the eyes, “you know where to find me.”

They leave, the heavy door shutting behind them and Raihan’s hand a gentle weight on the small of Leon’s back.

“What was all that about?” Raihan asks, glancing down at Leon.

Leon smiles. “I think,” he says, “we’ve reached an understanding.”

**Author's Note:**

> come hang out with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ShrapnelChan) and [tumblr](https://kiliofdurinsline.tumblr.com/)


End file.
